Looking out over a vast crowd of Navajo, Nez-Percé, Seminole, Ute, Peruvian Quechua and many more indigenous people, most dressed in traditional tribal regalia, Clifford Duncan nodded and said, “This day, they meet. We finally have these two big birds come together.”

Duncan, who is a Northern Ute from Whiterock, Utah, was in Washington, D.C., with members of the Mountains and Deserts Regional Ministry to participate in the Native Nations Procession and festivities marking the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian on Sept. 21.

Mountains and Deserts is an Episcopal ministry founded to foster relationships between Anglo and Native American congregations, and St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in northwest Washington hosted its Mountains and Deserts partners. As those who paraded sat on folding chairs, fanning themselves vigorously under an intense midday sun, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne from Colorado, invoked another image.

“To all our Native American friends here today, I say: The sacred hoop has been restored. The circle is complete. The re-emergence of the native people has come true,” he declared during an hour-long dedication ceremony.

As he spoke, a large bird glided high above the crowd in the cloudless sky. “Is that an eagle?” several people asked. Others looked up, shading their eyes in an effort to determine the bird’s plumage. It turned out to be a hawk, but the image was a powerful reminder of why all were gathered together that day.

It was a day of unity, celebration and long overdue recognition of the unique cultures and contributions of Native Americans. Faces beamed, cameras flashed and cell phones buzzed, while powerful speakers broadcast the sounds of ceremonial drums, fiddles and Native American music to the crowd. People spoke about their pride and their wonder at the immense diversity of cultures spread across the nation’s front yard.    

Parade and festival

The procession began at 10 a.m. For two hours, members of tribes walked, danced and conversed down the grassy thoroughfare from the Smithsonian Castle to the east end of the mall, just below the gaze of the U.S. Capitol and north of the maize-colored limestone museum.

The sun-splashed procession included representatives of more than 400 tribes from South America to Canada and Alaska in the north, Hawaii and as far away as New Zealand. They came decked in colorful woven blankets, buckskin moccasins, shimmering jingle dresses and elegant headdresses. In all, Smithsonian organizers estimated the events surrounding the opening of the new museum attracted 25,000 Native Americans and an additional 55,000 spectators.

For those who call themselves First Americans, the day was a mixture of parade, festival and searching for familiar faces in the crowd. “I think it’s wonderful to see all the Indian people, all the different tribes, the organizations. I think it’s marvelous. I can’t believe it’s happening,” said Roberta Windchief, a Nakota Sioux from Utah and part of the Mountains and Deserts group.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said the Rev. Paula Clark Green, assistant rector at St. Patrick’s Church. Green, who has Native American blood on both sides of her family, said her only regret was not bringing her daughter to the event.

“Once in a lifetime,” concurred Richard Mendez, rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit on the Uintal Ouray Indian Reservation in Randell, Utah. The day was especially significant for tribes, he said, “in that we are being recognized with our own museum, instead of being tucked away in some corner of another museum.”

Dressed in a rawhide tunic and eagle feather headdress, Mendez led the Mountains and Deserts contingent under a brightly colored banner bearing the ministry’s emblem on one side and that of the Diocese of Washington on the other. The group included about 10 people from St. Patrick’s and 48 Indian visitors -- Arapaho, Eastern Shoshone, Northern Ute, Shoshone Bannock and Pauite -- from six Western mission Episcopal churches.

God’s plan

“Being able to go there and having our partnership host us is … I’m not sure how to say this, but it’s just God’s plan,” Reynelda James, a Paiute and tribal elder from the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation in Wadsworth, Nev., told a reporter earlier as she prepared for the trip. She and six other women from two churches on the reservation wore traditional cotton calico-print dresses and Indian jewelry. Each woman brought a child with her to witness the momentous occasion.

Ten-year-old Andria James, Reynelda’s granddaughter, her hair neatly braided and carrying a wool blanket, said she was “excited” about the new museum and the parade.
Bruce Pargeets, youth coordinator for St. Elizabeth’s Church in Whiterock, Utah, was with his 8-year-old son, Chandler, both elaborately dressed in feathered costume. Pargeets seemed to be trying to take in the meaning of the unprecedented gathering. “I don’t know how to feel yet,” he admitted. “I’m glad to see everybody here.”

“It’s a wonderful occasion,” said Jo Lynn Hough, a St. Patrick’s parishioner who attended pow-wows in Oklahoma with her Cherokee grandmother when she was a child. “It’s overwhelming.”